A minimum of due diligence would have included Hart or Coppy picking up the phone and having a chat with Heyward's agent before doing this. A minimum. Their not doing that is a disgrace and professional incompetence.
Hate to call anyone in particular out, but you seem to be the one throwing the sternest criticisms at the brass, so I ask you - and everyone else crying foul...
Can you provide anyone with concrete "proof" that the front office didn't make an effort to get Heyward to agree to a reasonable extension that wasn't based on him being a 25+ HR bat while maintaining his defensive excellence AND suddenly becoming a capable hitter against LHPs?
The "evidence" everyone keeps pointing to is that Jason says they didn't discuss an extension - the evidence we KNOW is true is that the organization wasn't willing to accommodate his agent's demands for anything longer than 2 years when they talked last winter.
I've seen absolutely nothing that makes me think they didn't call Casey Close and make him completely aware that he had done nothing to make them pay him based on "potential", and that if they felt that's where his value lies they needed to move forward for the organization as a whole.